Sunday, October 25, 2009

And So It Begins...

I drank the Kool-Aid. I am now the proud owner of a shiny new white MacBook. Yeah, the kind that just came out on Tuesday. It’s real purdy. And, so far, the transition from a lifetime of PC use hasn’t been so bad. We’ll see how I feel in a few more days, but right now, I’m just so damn happy to have a computer that WORKS!


Top Ten Reasons My New Computer is Better Than My Old:

  1. 1.The shift buttons don’t get stuck.

  2. 2.The battery lasts more than 90 minutes.

  3. 3.The power jack WORKS!

  4. 4.The power cable WORKS!

  5. 5.It hasn’t spontaneously restarted once yet.

  6. 6.I can watch videos on the Internet!

  7. 7.It takes less than 15 minutes to boot up.

  8. 8.It has already managed to download and install several programs successfully.

  9. 9.Opening Skype didn’t cause it to shut down, reinitiating the 15 minute boot-up process.

  10. 10. I don’t have to sit on the floor to use it because that’s the only spot that allows me to keep the power cable in the proper position to maintain a charge.


But, on a more relevant note...


The ubiquitous “they” indicates that the market for Chick-Lit is dying. Some of the big houses of have closed their Chick-Lit imprints--notably Red Dress Ink.


Chick-Lit is, however, what I write, whether it’s for adults or young adults. I suspect the line between those two groups are blurrier than ever with the recent influx of cross-over successes like Twilight, The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, and breath-taking talents like Ellen Emerson White, who are done a disservice by being written off as “kids’ stuff.”


And Hollywood doesn’t seem to be done with the genre. Some of the best romantic comedies have come from wonderful women like Cecelia Ahern, Meg Cabot, and Jennifer Weiner. So, I have hope.


I have to, because this is the kind of story I love to tell. I love quirky, flawed, real women who don’t get it all right, don’t long for a white knight in shining armor, and occasionally fall out of bed. These things happen, and they make great stories. Stories I want to read, and stories I can’t stop telling. I can only hope I’m not the only one.